Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Year One: My Time at IGN

One
year ago today I was brought on to do freelance writing for IGN Comics.
There are many people that I owe this success to, including my Editor
Joey, the head of IGN Entertainment Chris, and my friends who listened
to me drone on about it forever (Drew, Brian, Christian, Alex, Aaron,
Byran, Eric, and Jason), but I’d like to think I also had something to do
with it. I'm the one who has to read the comics, after all.

When
I got the email from Joey last year after San Diego Comic Con, I did a
fair amount of jumping around before calling my dad. He’s not into
comics or anything, but he’s the smartest person I know and he always
supports whatever crazy goal I’m reaching toward. He’s a quiet man who
goes to church and believes in a hard day’s work, so imagine my surprise
when I told him the news and he nearly blew out my eardrum with
“THAT’S AWESOME!”

I
had wanted to write for IGN for a while, but it was when IGN's Jack DeVries wrote a piece on
gay video game characters in April of 2011 that I got truly inspired. I was shocked to see IGN run
the “controversial” article, on the front page no less, and it proved
to be a revelation for me. It showed me that even at a place like IGN --
known for hardcore gamers, features about hot babes, and a user base
akin to a wretched hive of scum and villainy -- there was a place for
someone like me. (Take a second to go support Jack’s Kickstarter for GaymerCon!)

Flash
forward to today and I’ve done countless comic book reviews, covered
Marvel press calls, and written all sorts of features. I was even quoted
on the back of a hardcover graphic novel. But the real highlight of my
time thus far at IGN came when I wrote my own gay feature, The State of Gay Characters in Comics. It got the expected reaction from the
aforementioned IGN commenters, but on Twitter I found a different kind
of response. People suddenly began following me by the dozens and gave
me mad props for writing the piece. It felt good knowing I could write
something that had such a positive influence on so many people. It also
showed me that IGN was not afraid to “go there.” The support from Joey
was incredible. Not only did he give me feedback on my writing, but he
asked me to go further and give him more. And so I did.

A
different sort of highlight came when my high school newspaper teacher
Mrs. Weiss asked me to give a presentation at this year’s Florida
Scholastic Press Association, the statewide convention for high school
level journalism. It’s all thanks to Mrs. Weiss that I don’t make a
complete jackass of myself when I interview someone or write a news
story. She’s one of the first people who stopped to tell me I was a
good writer. Seeing how my one recognized skill before that moment was
playing Yu-Gi-Oh!, I thought writing would be a nice step in a direction that would
lead to something more than social ostracization. The title of my talk
was “From Blogging to Batman” and was about how to use social media to
develop your professional image, make contacts, and help you get cool
jobs in the field of entertainment journalism. As you can imagine, I
used many examples concerning IGN.

If
I’ve gained anything from writing for IGN, it’s the insanely talented
people I get to work with. Joey has been the utmost professional of
editors. He will proofread my writing and all that, but he’s also good
for chatting over a beer when we meet up at conventions. I am embarrassed to say that
I’ve promised him a few beers that I still haven't bought him despite
the fact that we’ve gone to several bars together over the past year.
One day soon, my friend.

The
review crew Erik, Jesse, Poet, and Ben have all been amazing standout
guys who not only do a bangup job every week reviewing comics and
writing features, but by putting out such knockout content have
challenged me to up my game. To say something smarter, to be funnier, to
make more poignant references. As Gandalf would say, they’re the
balls.

Okay see I'm still working on that reference thing.

And
working behind the scenes like Emperor Palpatine is Chris, who I
genuinely appreciate for always making time to chat with me despite his busy schedule and the knowledge that after enduring a
conversation with me, he will have lost not only his patience but quite
possibly his sanity. He talks about the industry with an overwhelmingly
impressive amount of intricate knowledge and understanding, and so after
I hang up the phone with him I can’t help but wonder if I really know
anything about entertainment journalism at all.

I’m
pretty sure I do. If not, then shit, I’m doing a good job at fooling
everybody. Here’s to another year of being a Skrull at IGN! =)